Published at 4th of March 2026 8:10 am

Chapter 1554 The Corruption

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While several centuries had passed for Wagner within the Dark Valley, in the outside world, a little more than a hundred years had passed.

During that time, much had changed. Most notably, the Tron Chapter of the Twilight Brotherhood had been fully established.

From the shadows, the Brotherhood began aiding smaller kingdoms and minor factions, quietly opposing cruel tyrants and unchecked warlords. They protected civilians from the worst ravages of war, evacuating the helpless and striking where armies could not.

At the same time, they scoured the world for traces of ancient magic, seeking to recover and preserve lost knowledge before it could be abused or erased by

time.

They also began searching for clues to the rare celestial phenomenon where all the planets in the solar system aligned, as well as other unorthodox means of leaving this world altogether.

In the end, they followed the wishes of their great founder, Aldo Wagner, who had succeeded in leaving behind more than just an organization. He had left behind his legacy, along with the beliefs and principles he had once held dear. Because Wagner had been missing for more than a hundred years, the Brotherhood eventually came to accept that he was dead. After all, it was strange for even a long-lived Mana Core Magus to go missing for so long without maintaining communication.

With no sign of his return, they laid him to rest in memory, not in body.

Even so, they did not abandon his teachings. On the contrary, they upheld them with deep faith and devotion. The Brotherhood continued to act as he had taught them to act, determined to preserve his legacy and pass it down to future generations of members, just as he once had.

Somewhere on Europa, on the streets of a bustling town that would one day be known as Springdale, an elderly man in a tattered, hooded robe sat by the roadside. His back rested against a wall, his hand trembling as he quietly jotted down notes.

'I cannot banish it from my mind! It haunts me in my waking moments! It torments me in my sleep!

'I can't... No, no, please, no!

"The Beyond... it keeps calling to me! It claws at my sanity!'

Tiny worm-like tendrils squirmed under Wagner's aged hand. He stopped penning down his chaotic thoughts and abruptly turned to the side.

There, he saw a mass of swirling tendrils and tentacles slowly crawling toward him.

"N-No!" He clasped his hands and screamed in terror.

The people passing him by gave him strange glances, some scoffing while others felt a little pity. None of them realized that he was a mighty Mana Core Magus.

How could they?

Wagner was now no different than a sickly vagabond who had completely lost his mind.

"The Beyond... the Beyond... the Beyond..." He kept repeating under his breath, his teeth clattering.

His once bright blue eyes had turned bloodshot and murky. And at the corner of his eyes, one could notice small worms trying to burrow their way out.

"When will he come! When will he come!" Wagner rocked back and forth, sometimes biting his nails, and other times pulling at whatever hair he had left. "I don't have much time! I don't... Beyond... the Beyond... the Beyond..." His thoughts were a total mess, disordered and chaotic. He couldn't stick to one line of thought before quickly being reminded of the Beyond or the abomination.

The only thing he could do to gain a flicker of clarity was to write down in his journal, desperately trying to anchor his sanity.

'My Family... I will never see them again.

"The Beyond... the Beyond... the Beyond... it won't let me go...

"That monster... its eyes... tentacles... tendrils... they're everywhere!

"The Beyond... the Beyond... the Beyond...

'It's calling to me...'

Suddenly, a shadow loomed over Wagner. He instinctively flinched, covering his head in fear and panic. After all, he thought the abomination had come for him.

But then...

A familiar voice echoed in his ears.

"...Wagner?"

The elderly man froze. He slowly looked up and saw his old friend staring back at him with shock and disbelief.

Bartholomew's dark hair had started graying. He sported a beard now. He looked slightly older than the last time Wagner saw him. He was old, but the childlike wonder and brilliance in his eyes still remained.

"Bart?" Wagner whispered in melancholy, tears streaming down his aged face. "Is it really... you?"

Panic flashed across Bartholomew's eyes. All this while, he had believed that his best friend - his sworn brother - had perished after entering the Dark Valley. Yet now, the man stood before him once more, utterly changed as though he had lived an entire lifetime wherever he had been.

He quickly crouched and reached out with his hands. However, Wagner's aged face lost all its color, and he quickly crawled away, waving frantically.

"No... NO! Please, no!" He screamed in anguish. "D-don't come near! Don't

touch me! You might... you might turn like me..."

As he said those words, more tears streamed down Wagner's face. He appeared broken, beaten down, miserable, and utterly pitiful.

Bartholomew's heart tightened. "Wagner, what's happened to you!"

"The Beyond... the Beyond... the Beyond..." Wagner continued rambling under

his breath, his fingers fidgeting. "It's calling to me..."

The Beyond? Bartholomew's eyes narrowed.

He intently studied his friend's state of mind, the madness in his eyes, and his decrepit and aged skin. Then he thought back to where Wagner had just been, and a terrifying possibility emerged in his mind.

Bartholomew gulped and stood back up. "Let's go somewhere quiet and talk,

okay?"

"O-Okay!" Wagner nodded repeatedly. "B-But don't come close! The monster... it has many eyes... they're all watching me..."

The more Bartholomew listened, the more certain he became. Whatever had broken Wagner's mind and aged him so considerably was without a doubt a result of his time in the Dark Valley!

Before long, he guided his friend away from the city and toward the vast lake,

the very place where Wagner had once revealed the secret of the higher

worlds to him.

There, Bartholomew listened to every word of Wagner's account.

And when the story finally ended... he was thunderstruck!

"So that's... that's what's residing in that forbidden zone!" He exclaimed.

""The Beyond... the Beyond... the Beyond..." Wagner repeated the same words

over and over again as he paced back and forth.

"T-The corruption... it's... it's physical and mental!" he continued. "I have no

time left... I can never see them again..."

He suddenly paused in his footsteps and turned to his dear friend. "Did you..."

he began. "Did you find clues... to leave this world?"

Bartholomew deeply looked at Wagner and silently shook his head.

"... I see. So there's really... no other way," Wagner murmured. "Then... I want you to kill me... If I wait a few more years... my body will

mutate... I'm a danger to this world... to everyone... the Beyond... the Beyond... the Beyond... I cannot be allowed to live! Please... I beg you..." Bartholomew's heart ached seeing his friend in such a state. He hesitated for a

long time before finally saying:

"There might be a way."

"No, no, no!" Wagner shook his head. "The corruption is too deep... the

planetary alignment is still thousands of years away... I must die... I must die...

the Beyond... it's calling to me..."

What Bartholomew said next changed everything.

"The book of the devil."

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